• Gardens of Estonia
• Põlvamaa
• LILLI FARM

LILLI FARM

Lilli farm´s garden is located in the beautiful primeval valley of the river Võhandu. In 2001 works began to tidy the property, repair-restore the housing and construct the landscape. Before the year 2000 there were nothing there but dilapidated and partly collapsed buildings, breast-high nettles and scrubs.

The garden is not a typical ornamental or collector's garden, it is an ordinary domestic garden that is constructed valuing local milieu. The existing terrain and mature trees (high vegetation) which gives the plot its originality have been preserved as much as possible.

There are beautiful views from the garden over the river Võhandu and its sandstone banks. Rubble stone steps lead to the riverside where there is a fireplace with a shelter. Those who wish (including hikers) can camp out or have a picnic. Natural flora has been preserved on the steeper river banks. The wood pile in the garden containing nearly 40m³ of firewood is a sight in its own right. The size of the overall area surrounded with a wooden fence is about 4,000 square meters. Maximum height difference between the various parts of the property is up to 12m. 

The overall size of rock gardens has today reached approximately 400m². The rock gardens are constructed on the natural slopes of former gravel-pits, where the height difference is about 4m. In addition, there is a 400m² planting area between the the house and the gravel road and behind the sauna there is a 22m² Rhodo bed. There are about 700 taxa in the garden (including natural flora), plus the flowering bulbs. Plants are generally selected so that they would adapt to the environment and to the soil. However, there are also some frost tender plants to put to the test their resistance to the climate of southern Estonia.

In 2008, Lilli farm's garden won the prize of the "Beautiful Estonian Home, 2008" - http://www.iluskodu.ee/doc/konkursid/2008.pdf (text in Estonian language).